sell or drink the ardbeg oogling

drink or sell your ardbeg oogling

rumour has it that the ardbeg young uigeadial otherwise known as the oogling is currently being sold for alot more than it was sold for in the distillery, if you have an ardbeg oogling should you taste it, or sell it?
thanks
Elli

I guess that if you are asking yourself the question, you should either sell it now or hold for a future sale. I suspect that those who are destined to drink it will never even contemplate selling the whisky.

I know this may sound like I'm trying to make a quick dollar but I would probably sell it or save it to sell later. I love Ardbeg but at the price the bottle is selling for I would be foolish not to think that there is a much better bottle that I can get for the 150 euros or so that I have seen it sold on ebay for. I havn't heard alot about the content of the bottle but I'm sure it is exactlly what it states and that is a young whisky. It will show up at a festival somewhere so I guess I will get to taste eventually but for now I would have to go with the market and sell.

Why save it? So you can make a small profit? It really makes me so angry when I read about people buying up stock only to sell it immediately to make a small profit...greed I call it.
The young Uigeadail was cheap to buy. At only 29.95 I think the distillery wants us "whisky connoisseurs" to make a statement on their new product. Do we like it? Did they do a good job? Feedback?
But no, it has become something of an investors item, something you could make a few dollars from.
If they know it was only bought for resale they probably would have priced it far higher.

I haven't bought the bottle myself, but if I had I would have shared it with friends, asking for their opinions, just like when Ardbeg introduced the Very Young "Committtee Bottling - For Discussion" and were asking for ours.
If you bought several bottles I can (at some point) understand if you would like to save one to sell after several years, but to buy one day and sell the next is to me totally inconceivable. That's not investment, only pure speculation.
And this is my opinion!!

Mr Ellen wrote:If they know it was only bought for resale they probably would have priced it far higher.

After all...whisky is made to be drunk...

Cheers________________________Anders

Ardbeg are no fools, they know exactly what the values of their bottlings are. I nadvance of this years festival they hinted that the single cask festival bottling would be priced at 250 GBP.
At the festival, the price was actually 299 GBP.

Yes, this ooogling was a very reasonably priced bottle and they seem to have limited sales to 2 per person. I recently had a long discusion with one of the women in charge of oogling allocation and shipping, pointing out that there were already german sellers offering them on Ebay and people hadn't even received theirs yet. Nor did they know if they would get any.
Her reply was that she is overseeing the orders but it is almost impossible to stop people buying more as they use many different names, perhaps those of relatives in order to place mutliple orders and get more bottles.

"Whisky is made to be drunk" ???

Whisky is made to be utilised in any way that the person buying it wishes.
It's their whisky and if they wish to drink it, save it, put in a cupboard for a few years before deciding whether to drink or re-sell it, then that is THEIR choice.

I do not have it yet. But as my card were charged ages ago, I'm confident it will arrive one of these days...

I have purchased one bottle of this purely to drink it. But as this has already become a somewhat rare bottling, I think I will save it for a special occasion, perhaps a hth tasting, a birthday or some similar.

And in the meantime it will look very nice next to my other unopened Ardbegs.

But what will happen if I still have it in two years time, and it has reached some silly price, say €3-400. Will I sell it?
I honestly don't know. I believe I will hang onto it and eventually open it, but of course it will be tempting, I'm only human after all

So to sum it up: Bought to drink - intend to drink - if I at some future point can use it to finance a trip to Islay, I will consider - but think not.

Whisky is made to be utilised in any way that the person buying it wishes.It's their whisky and if they wish to drink it, save it, put in a cupboard for a few years before deciding whether to drink or re-sell it, then that is THEIR choice.MT

Of course it's up to each and everyone to decide what to do with THEIR whisky. As clearly stated in my post, and I state it again...I was merely expressing MY opinion. No need to feel attacked...

I have ordered two bottles. I entered a contract with Ardbeg, the sellers, in which I give them money and they give me two bottles for me to do whatever I please with, even if I wanted to hang one on the wall and throw sugar at it.

The whisky was priced correctly by the distillery the reason it is selling so high isn't because of the people selling it. The people buying it set the price. They're either individuals that feel that at 150 euros it is still a good investment or that it is that good of a whisky. There are also the pure collectors that will pay what they must to get the bottle. I have ordered 2 bottles myself, my card hasn't been charged so I was probably too late to get my bottles. I ordered it because I really like the standard bottling and the very young and still young are good so I figured it be a good whisky to try. I also will not feel bad selling it to people that evidiently want it more than me so that I can buy a couple more bottles to drink.

I would drink it - no doubt about it. Perhaps sharing it with fellow malt lovers - but drink it - yes

I didn't order a bottle - but hopefully there's one stashed away at the Old Kiln for me when I get to Islay later this summer.

I think it's a shame that it is allready becoming a collectors item. But I guess one can't help it. There is something magic in the words: Limited edition - only "so many" bottles. Those words really call out for the collectors.

To drink or not to drink...that is the query

Elli:
The distillers art, to be truly appreciated, must be sampled. You do a great disservice to the labours of the unsung heroes of the distillery if you squirrel it away and never celebrate it.

At some point in time, even my prized Glen Albyn will be sampled as I do not collect whisky to save it but rather to savour it. So drink it with appreciative friends and raise a glass to those less fortunate than yourself that will never taste an Ooogy.

Malt-Teaser wrote:Ardbeg are no fools, they know exactly what the values of their bottlings are.

Actually, I think MT has a very good point here.

I also believe that Ardbeg know what they are doing. I think they created this as a boon to "core fans" aka committee members - It being inexpensive just being a sideeffect of the age of this bottle.

I think they more or less knew this would happen, but could'nt really charge much more for it. I mean, can you imagine the outcry if they had priced what is technically a four year old at say £100? There would have been a lot of angry and disbelieving Ardbegs fans being very vocal about what they thought of the distillerys pricing policy - here and elsewhere. From a marketing point of view, not really a dream situation either.

I am for one grateful, for what they have done here. I have gotten my paws on a limited, highly desirable bottle of Ardbeg, a bottle that will most likely appreciate in value and for once I did not have to pay an outrageously high price for it.

As a fan, I can only say: Thank you Ardbeg.

If they really wanted to avoid it becoming a collectible, they really had the means to do so: They could "just" have made it less limited by doubling og trebling the size of this batch. Again, I believe they know what they are doing....

OK with apologies to any who will feel slighted, I will give my opinion, which takes something from Ilbacha and Jan's posts. I will attempt to be as forthwright and honest as possible while being respectful.

IF I had a bottle of the young Ooling, I would have bought it (sounds a bit overpriced at its origonal cost). I would have purchased because it's an Ardbeg and any A's I've had are great! If I saw the price climb, I'd change my mind to sell in about 2-4 yrs and put the money towards something a bit more reasonably costed.

Do I hold a grudge against those who have speculated? No - I believe it was almost overpriced to begin with. Do I wish I had an opportunity to try a bottle? Yes - untill I realize that everything comes at a cost, and I'm not impressed with the priced bandied about for a young vatting of Ardbeg (4-8yrs). Some whiskies mature faster - Springbank perhaps, Arran definately. Ardbeg? I dunno, but I'm not going to wail over missing this opportunity - this comming from an Adbeg fan.

Final analysis - I don't think it was any great bargain for the origonal cost. I understand why Ardbeg fans would pay inflated prices for the bottle - and they're welcome to it. There's plenty more whisky out there, just not Ardbeg. That's the key!

Jan wrote:...I pay for something more than the whisky - and am fully aware of this fact. I don't mind, still feel it is a bit of a bargain.

CheersJan

And that is the thing! You are paying a bit more for a limited edition of something, a chance to try a fleeting expresion that probably will not be repeated. If you feel that this is worth paying for, null sheen on my end. Actually, it wasn't that overpriced to begin with but the prices on ebay do reflect an interesting market correction.

I bought 2 bottles of the Oogling, one to be drunk and one to hold on to for later- either to be drunk or sold.

If in a couple of years I can resell the second bottle for substantially more than I originally paid for it, I will most likely sell it to finance the purchase of or trade it for another bottle(s) to sample. This has worked well for me so far and allowed me to buy/sample bottles that I otherwise may not have had the funds to purchase.

Also, taking into consideraton that prospective buyers may end up drinking the bottle anyway, the holding for resale of the bottle does not necessarily dictate that it will not be drunk at a later time or that less people will have the opportunity to try it (although I do admit that many people will be deterred from buying the bottle at the higher price and if someone buys the bottle at steep price they may be less inclined to drink it).

For those that believe that this is unfair to those who should have a better opportunity to purchase at the original sale price, I am inclined to agree with them, but as we are on a first come first serve basis I do not hold a grudge against any one who beats me to the punch to buy them.

Jan wrote:I agree, but I understand and sympathise (to an extent) with the drinkers vs collecters argument regarding the speculation on limited bottlings.

But limited bottlings were made for speculation.

I agree that the original bottle was overpriced for the whisky that was in it, but probably underpriced in a market with so many Ardbeg collectors. The question, though, is whether the "collectible" bottles will hold their value once the initial flurry of speculative sales has run its course. After all, the fabulous 1977 Ardbeg can still be got for little more than its original sale price and the Oogling - at only 3 or 4 years old - hardly appears to have been created to be great whisky.

BTW - does anyone recall that Serendipity was first sold as a limited edition, website only, once in a lifetime experience (ditto Laphroaig QC) only to hit the shelves of Oddbins at ridiculously low prices a few weeks later?

Good point. My experiance of buying a limited edition bottling comes from getting a 1991 bottling (13yr) Glenfiddich @ $52 cdn. Relative to the $38 price tag from the 12yr old this was a great bottling for drinking. Predicting price increases (speculation) is risky, and not something I could do with any degree of accuracy.

My own opinion is that if a bottle is worth the origional price, it's worth buying. If the price subsequently goes through the roof, I'd sell. After all, I'd rather get a morgage than buy whisky, if that's the choice...

I've done a good job to this point of only buying bottles that I have tasted and I will rarly get anything I don't like even if it is to hold onto and possibly sell. My feeling is that if I can use it in the future to buy 2 or 3 three other bottles then great if not then I'm going to open it up and enjoy it. A good example is the 14 yr old Winter Seasonal bottling from Macallan i just bought. It is a great whisky very comparable to the current 18 yr old bottlings and actually cheaper. I will most likely open one and hold onto the other because I have already seen one of them sell for 435 Euros on the whisky auction that is over 5 times what I paid for it. (The fact that there are only 570 bottles and it's good helps as well)

The great thing about whisky collecting (speculation) is that if it is done with some defined rules there is no real down side. I only buy bottles I know I like or have received good reviews. So, if the value of the bottle should not increase the only "down side" is that I will drink it. Not a bad alternative and preferable in many circumstances .

I keep hearing how investors are bad. I actually think in the long run they are going to make it possible for alot of people to try whisky that may not have been available to them. A good example of this is the Festival in Limburg. Almost all the bottles there are old and hard to find. If someone hadn't put them on a shelf somewhere and decided not to drink them I wouldn't have had the chance to try them years later. They were expensive but worth it.

Eventually investors sell their bottles and when that happens we get some good whisky (Hopefully) to try.

Bamber,
you are perfectly correct in what you say here, as are many others who say that even the original price was perhaps a little too much for the whisky in the bottle.

I personally think that the original price (was it around 30 GBP?) was about right for the content.
However, this is a very limited edition Ardbeg for committee members.
Less than 1400 bottles and specially labelled.

This immediately makes it desirable for collectors.

Ardbeg is probably the most "in vogue" distillery at the moment and just cannot do wrong when it comes to limited bottlings.
Apart from, perhaps, the Serendipity. Which I seem to recall was originally the same price as the Ooogling!!!
Now that was too expensive!

The fact that it is already selling for almost 3 times the original price is something that surprises me, or at least surprises me that it is selling like this so soon after issue.

If you look at The Kildalton:
Original issue price in 2004 of 95 GBP (say €135),
this quickly sold out and was selling on the collector market for €150 to €190.
During 2005 this rose to €180 to €240 and now, in 2006 is averaging around €270 but peaking at almost €300.

I think the Kildalton will still rise in price over the next years.
My personal feeling is that it will reach around €400 within the next 5 years.

Meanwhile, back to the Oooogling:
This will also continue to rise in price, I think you can expect €200 by late 2006 early 2007 and further rises over the next years too.

If anyone is looking for a 5-10 year investment then I think their original price of around €45 should rise to €300 or more if looking to 10 years.

I still hope to receive my own order of Ooooogling, especially as Ardbeg personally contacted me about it, but sell it?

Not within the foreseeable future.

I love to drink whisky, but when I look at bottles like this I have to look at them in a different way.
Just think, if I were to put €45 into a bank account today, what would it be worth in 5 years time, or 10 years time?
Remember, once in the bank account, I can't touch it, spend it or add to it.

I believe that putting €45 into an Oooogling represents much better value to me and allows me to combine my favourite hobby of whisky with a good investment for the future.

At that point, if I decide to sell it, then the chances are it will be bought by a whisky connoisseur who will be able to enjoy it long after they have gone from the shelves and are only a pleasant memory for most people.

Meanwhile, I can always enjoy a glass or three of Ardbeg 10 or some other very fine and readily available drams.